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 Expert
Posts: 1304
 
| Oh jeez I need some help! I am a senior majoring in Agribusiness and I graduate in May. I like my major and like the classes I took (lots of animal related courses) and started looking for jobs but am not seeing the biggest variety of jobs for me in my area (northern WV, western PA). Right now I really like where I'm at and would prefer not to move (I've already moved 17 times, have established my own life finally in my college city (parents live in two separate states), and with my sister expecting I want to be around her (she's 2.5 hours away)). I love this area, am closer to other family members, and am in a pretty serious relationship so overall I'm not looking to move/commute too far at the moment (an hour tops). It may sound nerdy but even if I was to find a good job, because I'm still applying, I feel like I have learned enough and am now considering a Masters degree or some more training. I like animals, am good with people but don't like them more than animals. Haha. I worked on creating a Nutrient Management Plan for one of our university's farm's last year, am AI certified, volunteered at an animal hospital for about 2-3 years. I have a lot of work experience from the time I was 16 specifically working as a caregiver, minimum wage jobs, working for a tractor dealership, working for the Extension service, etc. I love agriculture but am not sure if I want to work in agriculture as I know I'm going to have a horse and/or farm/land in my personal life and don't want to get burnt out if that makes sense? I'm very open minded and over think things so making the right choice is very difficult for me right now. I want to somewhat enjoy what I'm doing but also make decent money because we all know how expensive horses are. The longest I would go to school next would be 1-1.5 years. I unfortunately don't have the biggest science background in my college career so doing something with a ton of science pre-requisites probably isn't the best option although I need 17 credit hours to graduate and only have 1 class left for my major and am going to be a TA so I need 11 more credit hours! I keep looking at my school's Masters degree list hoping something will jump out at me. I considered equine dental technician, special education teacher but teachers pay suffers in WV, would love to work in the USDA if I could find a good job...I like helping people, like diversity in a job like being inside and outside..someone help me because I need some suggestions on things I haven't thought about!!  Thanks!! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 352
Location: Texas | I have an ag business degree and had the same problem. I tried to go to work for the USDA but for what I wanted to do I needed a Masters. That wasn't in the cards right away so I ended up taking what I could get. Then I went back and got an accounting degree. I work in the ag industry as a controller now.
Good luck! I loved my major but it wasn't the easiest on the job hunt front.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 937
| I work for USDA now. I am with the Farm Service Agency. I have a bachelors degree in AgriBusiness also. I graduated in December 2013 so I completely understand where you are coming from! It is hard to decide!! The only reason I started with USDA was the job kind of fell in my lap honestly. I was going to do the alternative licensure route and become an ag teacher until I found this job. I started out as a PT on the county progam side and transferred closer to home to be a PT for the loan side and was just promoted to a farm loan officer trainee. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you have! I absolutely LOVE my job and getting to work with the farmers.
Edited by sourkiss378 2016-01-07 2:59 PM
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I have an ag Econ degree. I work as a farm originator/merchandiser for a large grain processing company. I enjoy my work, I run a niche program and have some level of flexibility in my schedule.
I'll be commuting an hour to work in the spring when I move to the boyfriends farm, so I'm keeping my eyes open for something closer. I wouldn't mind getting into ag loans but I'd rather be on the private sector side than usda. |
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Expert
Posts: 1304
| Thank you for the replies! Any requirements for these jobs? They sound interesting to me. I've googled some things and found a few answers. I'm detail oriented and organized so something financial/business related would be good. Although I'm open to getting a Masters it would be nice to not have to. I actually applied for an FSA county program technician position but that was just a month ago and when I called they said they had close to one hundred applicants and it would take awhile to weed through it all, and they weren't starting it yet. Don't know if that was true or not! I notice a lot of jobs require experience which can be frustrating. I'm still looking around and am going to spend my day off looking and applying for more jobs!! |
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Regular
Posts: 99
| I would recommend getting into the insurance company business for ranches and farms. You have the education to do it. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| What about a rep for a pharmaceutical company? |
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Expert
Posts: 1304
| Those are both good suggestions. I need to look into insurance places near me, I never thought of that for some reason! The same for pharmaceutical rep. Do they have instability in their jobs? And are they most likely commision?
Edited by blccwgl55 2016-01-09 5:24 AM
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | Make sure you put a profile on LinkedIn. You can connect with all kinds of companies there & they also have job listings there. Kind of like Facebook for businesses. Lots of businesses are using it to recruit and network. |
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Expert
Posts: 1304
| Thank you for reminding me of that! I made one for a class and then forgot about it! |
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Folks on-line